For a month now, the Babayants family has been in a church asylum in the church of the Open Hof neighborhood community, part of the Protestant Community of Kampen. All the while a relay celebration is held. Because as long as a religious service is in progress, the government is not allowed to arrest the family. As long as this situation continues, the family is not allowed to set foot outside the home.
The family members fled Uzbekistan because they were threatened and spent eight years in an asylum seeker center in Emmen.
“It’s going well. Very well actually,” says Ariana Babayants. The family spends most of their time in some of the smaller side rooms. Even though they receive a lot of visitors and are surrounded by ‘sweet, good people’, she sometimes finds it difficult. “It’s hard, but I’m actually used to it. It’s a bit stupid that I can’t go to school and I went to a dance school so I can’t dance with my dance team. But we do it for a good cause , so that’s the most important.”
A church service is held in the church 24 hours a day. A huge operation that requires a pastor, volunteers and visitors to be present at all times. This morning, preacher Joost van den Bogert from Haarlem will be in front of the audience. “I was happy that we were there early, because that meant we could still register for today. The schedule is actually chock full, so that’s going very well.”
Van den Bogert passes the candle to René de Reuver, secretary of the national church meeting. The highest office within the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. During the press conference afterwards, he spoke out against the situation in which families like Babayants found themselves.
“A number of years ago there was a church asylum in The Hague. That led to a children’s pardon. The intention was: ‘We will make a clean sweep once, and as a government we will ensure that these procedures cannot last indefinitely. That it will be dealt with within a limited time; five years.’ We now see that that just doesn’t work.”
It is impossible to say how long this situation will last. The Haarlem pastor hopes that they will last a long time as a church. “We have been around for two thousand years. So we don’t think in hours or days, but in weeks, months and years. So we persevere. These are children who are rooted in the Netherlands. It is unbearable that we would bring them back. “We have to prevent that.”
Ariana Babayants does not want to look too far ahead. “Of course we don’t know exactly what can happen, what will come for us. But we are with God here under this roof of the church. With many lovely people around us. There are so many people who support us, who support us want to help. So we’re just going to keep fighting and working and hopefully it will work out.”